Brave New World: Shift
by Hope Shalott
Summary: After a climate shift, the structure of humanity falls apart and the world becomes a vampire free for all. /Completed/
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Brave New World: Shift

**Summary: **After a climate shift, the structure of humanity falls apart and the world becomes a vampire free for all. /Completed/

**Disclaimer: **Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. Story is produced without profit.

**Characters:** Leah/Renesmee, other.

**Genre: **Apocalyptic/Survival

**Rating**: Teen

**Warnings:** Apocalyptic themes.

**Status**: Completed.

**Archiving**: Please PM me.

**Inspirations/Dedications: ~**

**Author's Notes: **This story is part of a series. It is purposely left open with the aim of adding more to it.

* * *

**Shift: Chapter One**

* * *

It's cold out tonight. Colder than even she can stand. Her body demands a change. Survival would be so much easier with a fur coat, but she has to resist. There's no way she could carry the packs that are weighing her down, despite her superior strength.

The world has been swallowed by snow and ice. It blankets the entire landscape, leaving a bitter chill in the air that seeps through the six layers of clothing she is wearing. She could wear six more and it would still find it's way in. There's nothing left to distinguish where she is standing. It could be a village, a city...she could be standing in the middle of New York, for all she knows. Way back when, she could pinpoint her exact location just with a simple sniff of the air. Smog, pollution and spicy noodles and she was in Port Angeles. Fresh air, wet grass and car fumes and she was home.

That's the first lesson she learned. Her abilities are almost useless in the face of Mother Nature. They were bestowed by her after all, and she'll be damned if she was never going to show them their limits. Leah likes to believe it's a test, however egotistical that may be, because it's easier when there is something to keep pushing for, and she's always liked to prove that she is better.

She met Brady a while back. It took her until at least ten minutes into the conversation to realise where she knew him from. His face was smooth and youthful, a by product of their blessed genetics, but his eyes held no trace of the innocence she knew existed once upon a time.

...

"Leah?" His voice is rough, masculine. He's not a boy anymore. He wraps his arms around her in a hug and it's been so long that she's been touched by anyone that she caves into his embrace.

"Who are these people?" She asks, studying the group behind him. He has others with him, humans who shiver and shake as they talk. It doesn't matter what they look like, or how they got here. They look at him as if he is a hero and she remembers when she had companions of her own. She thinks about warning him. They'll only slow him down, they'll slowly fade away one by one until you start to question whether they existed in the first place, but she can't bring herself to do it. These people need a hero, and though she knows the boy in front of her is anything but, she lets them dream a little while longer, because she knows that he needs a reason.

He names them, one by one, and she can tell that he hasn't been doing this for long. Soon they'll merge into each other, soon names won't be important. It'll be easier to forget them if you never really knew them in the first place. .

Brady is heading North and she is heading South, so they say their goodbyes. A firm handshake, a pat on the shoulder and then they are gone. She sniffs the air, sharp and bitter, and she knows there's a storm on it's way. She starts to run, her eyes zooming every which way in search of shelter, because even a werewolf can't survive the waves. She's learned that the hard way.

...

The shelter she finds is a dilapidated cottage, and there's a fifty percent chance that, when the storm hits, it will come crashing down around her ears. But it's better than being out side so she settles down and prepares for the night ahead. She's got her routine perfected. First she checks the cupboards for food and the taps for running water and when she finds neither, because she never does, she spends a good few minutes cursing and kicking furniture. It's not rational but it helps. She considers, for a moment, dropping to the floor and just letting nature take it's course, but then she remembers a young boy proudly showing off his new transformer toy and her survival instinct kicks in.

She smashes up an old rocking chair that she knows is an antique and probably worth a few grand. None of that matters anymore. It's nothing of value in a broken world. The only thing it is good for is firewood and she feels no guilt or sadness as she watches it blaze. Her belly grumbles with hunger but the only people who dare to venture out in a wave are vampires and those who wish for death.

She piles every blanket, towel, and other scrap of material that she can find in a spot around the fire. She leaves the curtains because the difference is slight, but they really do help to keep the cold out. She doesn't bother boarding up the windows. To do so would be the equivalent of nailing a neon sign to the front door. If the cold has done one good thing, it's made it harder for the vampires to pick up a scent and so they've come to rely on visual signs that there is fresh blood near by.

She tries not to remember her life before but that is a case of easier said than done. It seems like a dream to her now. Faces and memories have faded so much that she can't tell the difference between make believe and reality. Some things stick. She remembers a time when she thought the worse thing that would ever happen to her was being betrayed by the people she loved and losing her father all within a few months of each other. She feels it's a blessing that Harry died when he did. She's not sure she could have watched her daddy suffering, without losing the shred of sanity she had left. Her father died at her own metaphorical hand, and that's a dignified way to go these days.

It didn't take her long to get over Sam. She wonders if Emily is still with him, or if he's had to watch her succumb to the cold, or worse. She thinks of her own imprint, sacrificed for the good of the pack. The overwhelming love she felt for him was second to none and she still misses the comfort of having him near her. She fought so hard to protect him after the shift, so she really should have intervened when she saw that vampire leap at him but in that second ,all she could see was her pack, her brothers. She knew she could never protect them fully, not while her imprint was still alive, taking all the love she had left to give. She had quickly regretted the decision, even more so as she ripped his marble throat out, but the pain had faded with time.

It all fades in the end.

…


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Brave New World: Shift

**Summary: **After a climate shift, the structure of humanity falls apart and the world becomes a vampire free for all. /Completed/

**Disclaimer: **Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. Story is produced without profit.

**Characters:** Leah/Renesmee, other.

**Genre: **Apocalyptic/Survival

**Rating**: Teen

**Warnings:** Apocalyptic themes.

**Status**: Completed.

**Archiving**: Please PM me.

**Inspirations/Dedications: ~**

**Author's Notes: **This story is part of a series. It is purposely left open with the aim of adding more to it.

* * *

**Shift: Chapter Two**

* * *

It's bright out when she wakes. The fire has been reduced to a few flickering flames, struggling to survive and it's almost poetic when she thinks of the handful of people left on this earth. She prays to gods she doesn't even believe in, that her brothers are alive, if not together. She doesn't bother beseeching the gods for her mother's fate. Chances are, she's long gone. Instead, she imagines Sue Clearwater cold in her bed. It's a peaceful way to go, considering the alternatives.

It's surprising how quickly it all happened, but it really shouldn't be. They had enough warning. It started with the same theories and advice. Use low energy light bulbs, always recycle and the world might not explode. Nothing but scare tactics some would claim. They'd be eating their words within the year. The summers disappeared first, not really applicable in Forks but the whole world had watched as Mexico was hit by rapid and random snow storms. Before long, rain in Forks had turned to hail. After a while, the snow came, bit by bit until one day, it didn't stop.

She hears a noise outside and drops to the floor, not daring to so much as breathe. She inhales but her senses are also impeded by the cold and all she can pick up the fresh sting of frozen air. She strains her ears, focusing on the crunch of snow under flat shoes. It's too loud to be an vampire and too soft for her kind. She doesn't relax but she slips her hunting knife from it's sheath. Vampires are only slightly more dangerous than a desperate human.

The door creaks open and the intruder's eyes widen in surprise as she finds a knife at her throat. Her face is flushed with the cold, and her chapped lips hold a blue tinge. Damp, brittle curls fall around her shoulders.

"Don't move." Leah warns, her growl a hollow echo in the empty room. The girl nods and looks at her captor. Her eyes flicker in recognition but she doesn't speak. She seems vaguely familiar and Leah pulls at the edges of her mind, digging through memories long buried.

"I know you. What's your name?" Her words are biting and she can smell fear coming off the girl in waves. It hits her deep in her gut, stirring feelings that she's tried to push down. The wolf knows what it wants but she'll be damned if she'll let it have it. Maybe it is all about survival but a girl has to have some limits.

"Nessie Cullen." The girl whispers, swallowing hard and wincing as the blade nicks her throat. Leah watches a drop of blood trickle down the blade and she feels that familiar stirring once again. She studies the girl carefully. The Nessie she knew was a child. The girl before her is a young woman. She doesn't bother with the math. Everybody is older than they should be now. If it doesn't show on their face, it shows in their eyes. Time has lost all meaning.

"What are you doing here?"

The girl eyes the blade, still at her throat. "I was travelling with my family two months ago when we got attacked by Hunters. We got separated. I've been looking for them."

She can remember her own brush with the vampire packs and a chill runs up her spine. Leah nods and lowers the blade. She doesn't put it away. She's made that mistake before. It's no fun waking up with a knife in your stomach and a man gnawing at your arm. The wounds heal, of course...but the memories don't. She drops onto her makeshift bed and pokes at the dying fire with a baseball bat. Nessie takes this as an invitation to stay and drops to the floor opposite her, despite the werewolf's glare. She sighs slightly as she holds her hands over the fire.

"How long have you been here?" She asks, looking around.

Leah glares once again before she answers. She doesn't want this kid getting any cute ideas about tagging along with her. "Since last night. I found it just before the wave hit."

She swirls the bat around again, her face blazing orange as the fire sparks up. "How did you make it through the wave?" She asks, eyebrow raised, an accusation in her voice as she remembers that Nessie has a beating heart and warm blood in her veins.

"I found a cave, a few miles away from here. I hid there."

Once upon a time, Nessie had been the Cullen's angel. They had taken it for granted that she would grow up to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Now Leah studies her brittle hair and cracked skin and wonders if Bella was disappointed when her baby started to break in front of her. There are dark circles under her eyes and her skin sags slightly at the mouth, as though she has lost a lot of weight in a hurry.

"Do you have anything to eat?" Nessie asks and her face drops as Leah shakes her head.

"I thought human food was beneath you?"

Nessie looks upset at the bitterness and truth in Leah's comment and there's a hint of shame. "I've come to appreciate it a lot more," she whispers. Leah nods in reply and turns her attention back to the fire. There's silence between them for a while and, though it isn't comfortable, it isn't awkward either. Nessie is the first to speak and the sound of her voice shocks Leah slightly. She had forgotten she was there.

"I haven't fed off humans you know. Not once. I know you must be wondering about that."

She hadn't. There's no place for altruism anymore and while she won't be encouraging the girl to feast on humans, she wouldn't really blame her for it if she did. "Me either,"she replies, bitterly. Sometimes she curses the little compassion she has left. It makes things so much harder.

"It's hard to resist sometimes." Nessie says, wistfully, and Leah remembers her own attempts to beat down the instinctive hunger.

"Yeah, it is," she agrees and neither of them speak for the rest of the night.

...


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **Brave New World: Shift

**Summary: **After a climate shift, the structure of humanity falls apart and the world becomes a vampire free for all. /Completed/

**Disclaimer: **Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. Story is produced without profit.

**Characters:** Leah/Renesmee, other.

**Genre: **Apocalyptic/Survival

**Rating**: Teen

**Warnings:** Apocalyptic themes.

**Status**: Completed.

**Archiving**: Please PM me.

**Inspirations/Dedications: ~**

**Author's Notes: **This story is part of a series. It is purposely left open with the aim of adding more to it.

* * *

**Shift: Chapter Three**

* * *

"We stayed at the house for a while, until the Volturi fell. Uncle Jasper didn't trust that they could forgo the interrogation, so he thought we should move. He was right. We found out a few years later that the new clan were rounding up all of the vampires the Volturi kept track of."

Nessie steps over a fallen branch without pausing in her story. "We lost Alice in a wave. It's so hard to find your bearings. Everything looks the same when the snow settles. We looked for days but we couldn't find any trace of her. My grandfather had to make the decision to keep moving, before the Hunters could catch up with us, but Uncle Jasper couldn't leave her. I haven't seen him in three years and I still wonder if he ever found her."

Leah stops suddenly and the two of them nearly collide. "Shit. I think we've already been here,"she says, her eyes taking in the scenery around her. The ground, the trees; everything is covered in a thick sheet of snow. She hauls her pack up on her shoulder, tins and pans rattling, and starts walking. "Let's go this way, see if we can pick up any markers."

It takes them three hours to find a route and Nessie keeps up the chatter without pausing. By the time darkness falls, Leah is about ready to kill her.

"Why are you alone? Where is the rest of your pack?"

Leah spins around and growls at her. "I think you know where our Alpha was. He was sunning himself in Brazil with you and your family while the rest of us were trying to survive."

Nessie steps back, her eyes wide in the face of Leah's anger. She lowers her head, an act which Leah automatically interprets as a submission, and so she turns away and resumes walking. She hears soft footsteps fall into a rhythm behind her but she is past caring whether the girl can keep up and so she picks up her pace.

"He didn't stay with me."

The words cause her to stop in her tracks. Nessie's expression is one of sadness and weariness. "He tried to call when things got really bad but by then the telephone lines were down. I begged him not to leave me but he did anyway. He said his pack was more important than anything. That he had to find you. All of you." She adds before Leah can do anything as stupid as think that Jacob had braved hell on earth for her.

Nessie's revelation has sparked the hope that is buried somewhere deep in the pit of the stomach. She hasn't seen Jacob since he left La Push, since he left the country, eight years ago, to be with his imprint, but perhaps he has found Seth and Quil and Embry. Maybe her brothers are all together and looking for her.

They find a cave, buried deep in the hills. Her foot hits metal at the entrance and after a few minutes of digging, she unearths a road sign, welcoming visitors in a foreign language. Nessie studies it for a few minutes, finally deducting that the sign is written in Lithuanian.

"Fuck. I thought we'd be closer to home than that. Where were you when you lost the others?"

Nessie shakes her head, bronze curls bouncing against her pale face. "I don't know. We came home before the waves started. Back to the house, I mean. Grandfather hadn't sold it because we were going to go back when nobody would be able to recognise us, -"

"Get to the point."Leah snaps, pulling a bundle of dry sticks from her pack. Nessie flushes a little at her anger but resumes her story in a quiet voice. She unpacks the bags, laying blankets on the floor, as she speaks.

"We left Brazil about three years after we arrived. The riots had gotten worse and we had people trying to break into the mansion a few times. None of you were there when came home. Jacob asked your mother were you had gone and she told him that you had taken the pack to try and find a safe place to settle down in."

"I didn't know the waves would start. I didn't know we wouldn't be able to find our way back." Leah whispers, her hands fumbling to light a match.

Nessie places a comforting hand on her shoulder, moving it slowly away as Leah glares at it. "It wasn't your fault. Nobody could have guessed what would happen. Even the experts didn't know."

Leah nods, solemnly, and gestures for her to continue. "Jacob left to find you. He asked us to watch over your mother. Charlie had already been killed by that point."

"That happened while we were still there. He got caught in the riots. Some guy was trying to get medicine for his daughter, so he shoots the first guy in a uniform he saw."

Nessie nods. "Mother was so upset. She still feels guilty now for not being there. When Uncle Jasper said we had to leave, we tried to convince your mother to come with us but she refused to leave La Push. She said that if she was going to die anywhere, it would be at home where her children could always find her."

She pauses and studies Leah's face, looking disappointed when she doesn't spot the onset of tears or sadness. Leah's face remains blank but Nessie obviously sees something that makes her think she is upset. "Maybe she's still alive. You know how tough your mother is."

Leah smiles, although she isn't going to get her hopes up on that one. They both watch the dancing flame, each thinking of their own families and a time when things were both simpler and happier.

"How did you get separated from the others?" Nessie asks, her curiosity seeping through every pore. Leah considers telling her to shut up but it has been a while since she has had anyone to really talk to, so she leans back against the cave wall and rests her hands on her knees.

"When the riots started and Charlie was killed, I moved the pack into my house. I was Alpha since Jacob had left and it was my job to keep them safe. Old Quil had died a few months before Charlie...the cold got him. The old and the young were the first to go. So, my mom and Billy Black were the only elders left on the council. They kept up the meetings, said we needed stability at a time like this and they both proposed that we should reunite the packs under Sam's lead...but I refused, and my pack backed me up."

A tree branch falls outside of the fire and she pushes it back in with the toe of her boot.

"I'm not gonna lie and say I saw this whole thing coming. I didn't. I don't think anybody did, but I did know that my pack could handle it better than Sam's. I knew we were stronger and I didn't want him dragging us down. I had a plan. We were gonna stick together. And so we all squeezed into our tiny house. My family, Quil and Claire's family. Embry and his mom, my imprint, and the Blacks...except for Jacob. Rachel refused to leave her father so we had to put up with Paul because he refused to leave Rachel...and when we heard of the snow hitting Hawaii, Billy begged Bex to come home. She and her husband made it back just before they shut the airports down."

Nessie leans forward, her elbow is propped on her knee and her chin rests in her hand. Her eyes glitter with the horrified excitement of one who knows that this story can't have a happy ending. Leah pauses, wringing the younger girl's curiosity for all it is worth. She doesn't blame her for her excitement, it's a damn good story. Just a shame it is all true.

"So, we were all under one roof, sleeping on a rota and bitching about the bathroom never being free. It seemed like hell at the time but looking back, it was fucking heaven. Then we start hearing about the random attacks, on the independent news channel. Vicious, rabid like humans. That's how they described it. A whole village worth of humans had been slaughtered in the Amazon."

The young girl winces at that. She knows of only a few vampires who reside there and all of them she considers friends. Leah notes her residual guilt with a vicious smile.

"So my plan wasn't worth shit anymore. I knew that we wouldn't be safe. I had a feeling in my gut. So I took my pack and we left to find somewhere safer, where we would be better protected against the cold and the leeches. I knew that Sam and his pack would protect my mom and the others from the leeches if they did get close. And so we set off, promising that we would come back soon, with food and blankets and everything else we needed but didn't have. Then the waves started."

Her eyes cloud over as she remembers the first wave. The one that had separated her from her brothers. "You know what it's like. You can't stand still and by the time it settles, you have no idea how far you've moved or where the others have gone. We didn't know enough to hold on to each other, that doesn't always make a difference anyway, but we didn't know enough to try."

She clears her throat, embarrassed at her display of emotion and for allowing herself to get lost in the story. "That was six years ago. I've been looking for them ever since and trying to get home, but everytime I think I'm getting somewhere, another wave hits and I lose my sense of direction. I've tried marking the ground I've covered, but it all gets lost under the snow and I find myself right back where I started, with no idea which way to go."

"Six years?" Nessie whispers and her eyes fill with tears. "I might not see my family for six years."

Leah watches her in silence for a moment as thick tears track down her cheeks. They don't last for long, evaporating before they hit the ground but she hasn't seen anyone cry since she found that girl two and a half years ago. She had been cowering in the bushes and Leah couldn't bring herself to leave her. She was dead by night fall.

"You might never see your family again," she says, regretting the words as Nessie's sniffling dissolves into thick, heaving sobs. She kicks at her pack angrily. She has a plan, and babysitting a vampire/human hybrid isn't part of it, but one look at the crying girl in front of her and she knows she has no choice.

It's a rare thing to find such innocence in this world. She has seen packs of children carving up an old man and putting his flesh on the fire. She has watched them devouring skin off the bone. Nobody cries in this world, not anymore.

"What are we going to do?" Nessie says with a pathetic sniffle.

Leeches, werewolves, humans...none of them are a match for mother nature and none of them can cheat death. Not when it wants you.

"Will you help me find them?" Nessie begs, her eyes filling with fresh tears. She looks so much like Bella that Leah wants to slap the weakness out of her.

Leah sighs and finally admits the truth she's know all along. It's pointless to search for anything anymore. You just have to keep moving in the struggle and hope that fate takes pity on you. Hope is all any of them have left.

"You can stick with me but I won't go chasing after your family, not when my own might be out there. We'll just keep moving, hope we stumble across the others. That's all we can do."

Nessie nods and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. She manages a weak smile but Leah knows that it's not enough. It never is. And it never has been.

All that is left to do is try.

~fin~


End file.
